14 CapitalPress.com
March 3, 2017
Dairy
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Idaho officials investigate possible dairy breach
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Officials of the Idaho State
Department of Agriculture
are investigating alleged dis-
charges of wastewater from
4 Bros. Dairy north of Sho-
shone, which might be a fac-
tor in well water contamina-
tion in Lincoln and Gooding
counties.
Residents in the area
have reported foul-smelling
and discolored tap water,
and the South Central Public
Health District has advised
residents to avoid the use
or consumption of untreated
and untested well water due
to possible contamination
from widespread flooding.
The state Ag Department
is conducting an investi-
gation into alleged issues
at 4 Bros. Dairy and is co-
ordinating with the Idaho
Department of Environmen-
tal Quality and other agen-
cies as needed, said Chanel
Tewalt, ISDA communica-
tions chief.
4 Bros. co-owner, An-
drew Fitzgerald, said on his
attorney’s advice he can’t
comment at this time but
will make a statement at a
later date.
ISDA has conducted wa-
ter tests, both on its own and
in coordination with DEQ,
and will provide results of
those tests once a public in-
formation request is run past
counsel regarding releasing
information in an ongoing in-
vestigation, she said.
Abundant snow, fol-
lowed by heavy rains and
warm weather, have caused
widespread flooding in the
region, with livestock oper-
ations reporting challenges
in containing run-on and
runoff on their property.
ISDA teams are going full
force responding to calls,
complaints and requests for
technical assistance in the
Magic and Treasure valleys,
Tewalt said.
The agency is looking at
each operation on a case-by-
case basis to do what it can
both to assist and fulfill its
regulatory role, she said.
DEQ personnel have not
been onsite to observe a possi-
ble discharge because the Ag
Department has the lead on
regulating dairies, said Mike
Brown, DEQ regional engi-
neering manager.
“We only get to clean up
the mess after it hits,” he said.
On the public health side,
South Central Public Health
District is taking the lead be-
cause the issue involves pri-
vate wells and DEQ has no
jurisdiction over drinking wa-
ter or private wells, he said.
“We’re here as a consultant
and can lend expertise.”
The agency is in the loop,
however, and there’s not yet
enough definitive informa-
tion to determine causality
– whether it’s an issue of run-
off or the dairy’s actions or a
combination, he said.
In a request for comment,
the U.S. Environmental Pro-
tection Agency stated it was
notified of the reports of
problems at 4 Bros. Dairy by
ISDA and is communicating
and coordinating with its state
agency partners to determine
the next steps.
Lynn Harmon, general
manager of American Falls
Reservoir District No. 2,
which provides irrigation
water in the area through the
Milner-Gooding Canal, said
he’s been advised not to com-
ment.
Dairy Challenge hones students’ skills
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Tim Hearden/Capital Press File
Cows are milked at VanderWoude Dairy near Merced, Calif. Califor-
nia producers are studying a federal milk marketing order proposal.
Voluntary pooling biggest
issue in marketing proposal
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
California dairy co-ops
and milk producers have a lot
to evaluate in USDA’s recom-
mended proposal for estab-
lishing a federal milk market-
ing order for the state, which
has long operated under a
state order.
The biggest difference in
the two is that California’s
order regulates all milk pric-
es, and all processors must
pay those minimum prices
established for different uti-
lizations. In federal orders
— and the proposed order for
California — only Class I,
milk for fluid consumption, is
regulated and manufacturers
of dairy products can choose
whether to participate in the
pool and pay minimum prices.
Participation in the pool
results in a blend price to pro-
ducers based on minimum
prices and utilization. Co-ops
and producers wanted manda-
tory pooling to be a part of the
federal order.
A number of things in
the co-ops’ original proposal
were included in USDA’s pro-
posal, such as product price
formulas in line with the rest
of the country and the reten-
tion of quota value — $1.70
per hundredweight above
blend price paid to producers
holding quota certificates.
But mandatory pooling
was not, and that’s probably
the piece that’s going to be the
most difficult to work around
as far as producer acceptance,
said Mark Stephenson, direc-
tor of dairy policy analysis
at the University of Wiscon-
sin-Madison.
“I think it’s a big deal —
this is going to get down to
asking if you’re going to have
a lot of plants opting out of
the pool,” wherein they’re not
subject to minimum pricing,
he said.
Federal orders are main-
ly about an orderly market
for Class 1 fluid milk, mak-
ing sure fluid plants get milk
when they need it. They con-
tribute money to the pool, and
manufacturing
processors
draw from that pool when
they provide milk.
But California’s Class I
utilization is low — “it’s not
going to be an issue at all;
there’s plenty of milk in Cal-
ifornia,” he said.
Contributions to the pool
are likely to be very small,
with a lot of unregulated
plants, and that’s the balanc-
ing question in producer sup-
port, he said.
“Do I think I’m going to be
better off with a federal order
when a lot of plants are opt-
ing out of regulated pricing,”
he said.
The push to join the feder-
al order system was to realize
more equitable prices com-
pared to the rest of the coun-
try, particularly for milk to
manufacture cheese.
But the price of milk go-
ing to cheese could go down
under a federal order if cheese
processors opt out of the pool.
If it isn’t regulated, it’s not
Class III milk – it’s just milk,
Stephenson said.
On the other hand, proces-
sors will pay what they need
to get milk in the door. At the
end of the day, cheese plants
want to make money and if
they pay too little, farms will
fail.
Co-ops and producers are
the ones who will vote on a
federal order, and the question
will be whether they’re better
off with the state order they
have or with the recommend-
ed federal order.
“It’s a complex decision,
no doubt about that,” he said.
TWIN FALLS, Idaho –
More than 50 students from five
universities around the Western
U.S. and Canada put their ac-
ademic knowledge to the test
on a real-world dairy last week
at the Western Regional Dairy
Challenge.
Part of the North American
Intercollegiate Dairy Chal-
lenge, which began in 2002,
the regional challenge is de-
signed to create an educational
environment and facilitate re-
al-world evaluation. It strives
to incorporate a higher-learning
atmosphere with practical ap-
plication to help prepare stu-
dents for a variety of careers in
the dairy industry.
One of the strengths of the
regional challenge is that stu-
dents are placed on aggregate
teams, combining students
from different universities,
backgrounds and education.
The teams then tour a host
dairy, are provided with the
dairy’s data and have an oppor-
tunity to question the dairy’s
management team.
From there, they develop a
comprehensive evaluation in-
cluding recommendations for
nutrition, reproduction, milk-
ing procedures, animal health,
housing and financial manage-
ment. Those Power Point pre-
sentations are then presented
to expert judges, who partici-
pate in the tour and review the
dairy’s data.
One judge, Peter Kasper of
Kasper Dairy in Melba, Ida-
ho, participated in the national
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
Students from 12 universities across the West and Canada participating in the Western Regional Dairy
Challenge listen to answers to students’ questions from operators of the dairy that hosted the competi-
tion during a session at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls on Feb. 24.
Dairy Challenge in 2004.
“Interaction with different
students from different univer-
sities competing on the same
topics gave me different per-
spectives,” he said.
That was before regional
challenges and aggregate teams
were added to the program –
which offer wider involvement
and a heightened learning expe-
rience, he said.
The aggregate structure of-
fers a good challenge, wherein
students have to learn to work
with people they don’t know,
he said.
“They’re essentially a con-
sultant for a day. I don’t know
of any other dairy program like
it,” he said.
The experience also allows
students to see if this is a ca-
reer path for them and offers a
good opportunity to find future
employers and internships, he
said.
Sharing knowledge
Tony VanderHulst, co-own-
er of the host dairy and presi-
dent of the Idaho Dairymen’s
Association, said the students
represent the next generation
of agricultural leaders and it’s
important they are exposed to
the real-world workings of an
operation.
“They’re our future; they
need to learn,” he said.
The challenge provides an
opportunity for them to work
with team members from oth-
er schools in a real-world set-
ting where they have to learn
to adapt and work together, he
said.
The students were obser-
vant enough to see the issues
the dairy struggles with, made
great presentations on their
findings and offered good ideas
on how to address those issues,
he said.
The challenge provides a
great experience for social net-
working and being able to meet
dairymen, said Paige Harwood,
a pre-veterinary junior at Wash-
ington State University.
Block-barrel cheese price inversion ends
By LEE MIELKE
For the Capital Press
C
ash block cheddar
cheese sank to $1.51
per pound last Wednes-
day but closed the Presi-
dent’s Day holiday-shortened
week at $1.5750, still down
a half-cent on the week but 9
1/2-cents above a year ago, as
traders absorbed Thursday’s
January Cold Storage data.
The barrels finished at
$1.5175, down 10 1/4-cents,
8 3/4-cents above a year
ago, and ended the inversion,
dropping 5 3/4-cents below
the blocks. Ten cars of block
traded hands last week and a
whopping 35 of barrel.
The blocks dropped 3 cents
Dairy
Markets
Lee Mielke
Monday but inched up a quar-
ter-cent Tuesday, to $1.5475.
The barrels were also
down 3 on Monday but
jumped 3 1/4-cents Tuesday,
to $1.5250, with 14 cars trad-
ing hands.
FC Stone’s Dave Kurza-
wski wrote in Tuesday’s Early
Morning Update that “with
grilling season and weather
worries safely months away,
talk of U.S. milk ‘flush’ is
adding to bearish pressures.
Keep in mind that as the bear-
ish talk mounts and prices
fall, end-users are inclined to
pull back on orders and stand
on the sidelines to ‘wait out’
this move.”
Milk is abundant for cheese-
makers in the Midwest, reports
Dairy Market News. Cheese
production is active as produc-
ers try to balance inventories
while maintaining production
to coincide with the surplus
milk. Some cheese manufac-
turers reported fluctuations in
demand week by week, incon-
sistent with past years. Others
report a general slowdown,
characteristic of this time of
year, but inventories are long.
Western cheese output is
steady and active. Demand is
seasonally lower but many pro-
cessors are seeing a steady pull
of cheese stocks, though stocks
are rising.
Spot butter fell to $2.1175
per pound Wednesday but ral-
lied some and closed Friday at
$2.13, 2 3/4-cents lower on the
week but 15 1/4-cents above a
year ago. Only two cars were
sold last week at the CME.
The spot price added 3 cents
Monday and 2 cents Tuesday,
climbing back to $2.18 per
pound, possibly driven by Eas-
ter-Passover holiday demand.
DMN says cream remains
readily available in the Central
U.S. but cream interest from
Class II operations is beginning
to increase, so competition for
cream may escalate. With the
current cream surplus, howev-
er, butter production is active.
Expert: Efficiency, not regulation, reducing dairy air emissions
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — A desire to
reduce inefficiencies — and
neighbor conflicts — is driv-
ing Oregon dairy farmers to
cut unwanted emissions, ac-
cording to an industry expert.
Environmental activists of-
ten bemoan the lack of federal
and state air quality restrictions
for dairies, but farmers are tak-
ing steps on their own, said
Troy Downing, dairy exten-
sion specialist at Oregon State
University.
“As we get new science, our
industry is adopting it quicker
than we would through regu-
lation,” Downing said at the
Oregon Dairy Farmers Asso-
ciation’s annual conference on
Feb. 20.
The prospect of Oregon’s
government taking a more
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Troy Downing, extension dairy specialist at Oregon State Universi-
ty, speaks about reducing emissions at the Oregon Dairy Farmers
Association annual conference in Salem.
active role has been raised by
Senate Bill 197, which would
require the state Environmen-
tal Quality Commission to en-
act formal rules for reducing
dairy air emissions.
The legislation seeks to
formalize recommendations
made by a dairy air task force
in 2008, which proponents of
SB 197 complain haven’t been
acted upon, Downing said.
In reality, though, dairy
farms have voluntarily im-
plemented “best management
practices” such as installing
anaerobic digesters to capture
gases and use them for energy
production, he said.
“We have made significant
progress,” Downing said.
Decreasing odors allows
dairy farmers to be good
neighbors as well as curtail
volatile organic compounds,
or VOCs, he said.
The adoption of automated
scrapers has led to more fre-
quent removal of manure and
urine from barns, Downing
said. Waste is more stable in
a liquid form, which prevents
volatilization and the release of
undesirable gases.
Some measures also help
farmers put the nutrients in ma-
nure to better use.
By applying manure to
fields with “big guns” at high
pressure, more of the sub-
stance is released as an aero-
sol-like spray that’s prone to
volatilizing into a gas, Down-
ing said.
More farmers are now
switching from the big guns
to low-pressure or injection
systems that preserve nitrogen
while reducing gases, he said.
Manure is often assumed
to be the culprit in dairy emis-
sions, but feed and silage also
release gases, Downing said.
Dispersing
smaller
amounts of silage several
times a day — rather than
a large amount once — de-
creases the amount of time it
lays around, reducing VOCs,
he said.
Storing silage in a narrow-
er pit also shrinks the size
of the open “face” as feed is
removed, reducing volatiliza-
tion of gases compared to a
broader pit with a larger face,
he said.
As gases are volatilized
from silage, the material’s
weight decreases, Downing
said. “That’s dry matter you’re
losing to the atmosphere that
the cows aren’t eating, that you
bought and paid for.”
Reducing emissions can be
advantageous for dairies, but
Downing noted that livestock
production contributes to only
4 percent of U.S. emissions of
“greenhouses gases,” accord-
ing to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. The dairy
industry’s share is less than 1.5
percent of total U.S. emissions.
Meanwhile, Oregon’s air
quality is predominantly rated
as “good” by the EPA, though
some areas occasionally dip
into “moderate” territory
when people heavily use wood
stoves during atmospheric in-
versions, Downing said.
“Oregon really has no air
quality problem. What prob-
lem are you trying to fix?” he
said.